“Apple has published the latest edition of its biannual report on Government Information Requests,” Jonny Evans writes for Apple Must. “The report covers the first six months of 2016. It confirms that governments worldwide are making more frequent requests for access to customer data, and that the US makes six times as many account requests as China.”
“Apple says account requests usually involve providing information about an account holder’s iTunes or iCloud account, such as a name and an address,” Evans writes. “‘In certain cases, we are asked to provide customers’ iCloud content, which may include stored photos, email, iOS device backups, documents, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks. We consider these requests very carefully and provide account content when the legal request is a search warrant,’ the company said in its report.”
“Apple confirms that the 1,560 accounts Chinese authorities demanded were predominantly concerned with fraud investigations. It offers no explanation for the 9,090 accounts requested by the US government,” Evans writes. “The UK government made the third biggest number of requests, 310. At least two-thirds of these requests were honored in each country, the report said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s “Report on Government Information Requests, January 1 – June 30, 2016” is here.
The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in fine, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise. ― Mark Twain
SEE ALSO:
Government data requests 2015: Apple earns 5-star rating – June 18, 2015
Apple issues update on U.S. NSA and law enforcement orders – January 27, 2014
Anyone else think Apple’s push towards getting your documents in the cloud was a requirement made under secret government duress, not a business one?
Before, they at least needed physical access to your phone. Now, even if it’s stored encrypted in iCloud, they can get at and try decrypting it without you knowing.
A great deal of that responsibility lies in the consumer’s hands. If you abdicate control of your stuff, this is what can happen.
No.
Anyone with anything illegal to hide won’t use “Documents in the cloud”. And even of they did, they would store anything illegal somewhere else.
All my personal shit is stored somewhere else on my HD not in my “Documents” folder. Therefor, I can safely use the feature without worrying about it.
In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
–Mark Twain
Drump’s police state will soon make everything better.
did you notice that he has several Goldman Sachs executives in his cabinet? So much for the will of the people and the railing against the big banks.
Bend over. Here it comes.
Indeed. Nothing screams CORPORATOCRACY and 1% OVERLORDS like putting anyone from Goldman Sachs into one’s cabinet.
Fact: Goldman Sachs was one of the leading financial institutions that threw the world into the economic crash and ‘Great Recession’ of 2007-2008. Why would anyone want any of their executives running anything ever? From their past history, they’re guaranteed to ruin what they touch with greed and irresponsibility.
I’m not bending over for these dicks.
Goldman Sachs merely went where the money was. It was Democrat policies that essentially guaranteed bad loans through Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac that led to the real estate bubble and ultimate burst.
Besides, Obama is OWNED by Goldman Sachs. Some call him “President Goldman Sachs” as he has received more money from Goldman Sachs than any other candidate and he can’t seem to get enough ex-Goldman Sach employees into his administration.
What utter twaddle. Facts are facts, are not what you provided.
Mr Currie, Drumpf voters are motivated by belief- not facts. They are as invested in their world view as parishioners who believe in the invisible Gawd who made the world in 6 days, then took a day off to crack a cold one.
Trying to explain the Bush-Clinton-Reagan-Obama Recession and Scam Recovery to someone determined to blame it on the “Democrat” Party is like explaining cellular transport to a Neanderthal. 3 decades of regulatory capture, insider trading, non-enforcement of laws and rules, the end of Glass-Steagall, the privatization of Fannie & Freddie, deregulation, corruption within the debt rating business, the willful fraud of investment banks, the revolving door between industry and government, and the ‘heads I win tails you lose’ attitude of Wall Street all had a part in the Bush Recession. The fake recovery was made possible by the continued creation of funny money by the Fed which has further debased the US Dollar and Obama’s people had no problem with it and are complicit after the fact. Eric Holder did not put one Bankster in Jail and then went back to his firm that represents Banksters.
What happened in 2007-8 had many fathers of both Parties over 3 decades and neither will confess the truth. Common Americans know the fallacy of a recovered economy is a lie because what they see out their window does not comport with what they hear from official sources. Since all they can get on the radio is Republican Talking Points, they blame it on the “Democrat” Party. Do not confuse them with the complex truth.
At the very least, we will henceforth be spared the tiresome catcalls about overwhelming liberal bias in the mass media. That seems to be dying down in a hurry. Trump uses Twitter with the same finesse that Jack the Ripper used a straight-razor, to somewhat the same effect.
As we learnt in the Roaring Twenties, however, human ingenuity, fuelled by irrepressible human desires, lead to a brisk commerce in anything whatsover that is politically or socially banned; such as drink. Al Capone recognised a business opportunity and seized it. Today he is thought of as a heartless murderer, an amoral man who contributed to alcoholism and dissolution. Yet his workers employed the tommy gun only to protect his business interests in the absence of protective government regulation; and he faithfully telephoned his mother every day, and dutifully paid his telephone bill.
It’s man’s nature to want to conduct business in any sphere available to him. Officially banning or discouraging any activity whatsoever opens a niche into which entrepreneurs will run, sensing opportunity to make a killing.
Relevant news reporting, as opposed to state-controlled sources like Pravda, is just such an activity.
The basis of populism is gossip. — That is just news that people really care about, and tend to believe because they heard it across the fence from their neighbor, not on the radio from a stranger. – Will Rogers
“Yet his workers employed the tommy gun only to protect his business interests in the absence of protective government regulation”
Be that as it may… We lose sight of things with these moral deflections. Pardon the pun, but his own business interests don’t “trump” the lives of people… 😉
You say it all much better than I.
The one thing I point to that indicates the current state of the US economy: The interest rate set by the Fed. In Japan and elsewhere they’ve set it to be negative. This is desperation behavior that all but forces people to spend, not save, their money. And of course, going in debt is made so much easier. It’s all manipulation in order to overcome the fact that the foundations have been yanked out from beneath it all. We float on hot air.
Clinton Campaign Contributions from Goldman-Sachs:
$1,029,467
Trump Campaign Contributions from Goldman-Sachs:
$0
“Goldman Sachs Bans Contributions to Trump, Not Hillary: Report”
http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/09/07/goldman-sachs-blocks-contributions-trump-pence-report
The problem is the Hillary was all for the National Security State as well.
Bush’s Treasury Secretary came from Goldman Sachs, Obama’s from Goldman Sachs, Trump is recruiting from Goldman Sachs. Notice a pattern?
Apparently in US political affairs you can have any car you want as long as it is black.
Not sure when the torches and pitchforks will break out, but the voters duped by Drumpf are going to be very pissed in not too very long a time. Drumpf and Shillary were both playing low information voters. When a Paul Ryan replaces guaranteed issue Medicare with a voucher and ‘you are on your own’ to millions of near retirement Drumpf Voters and Drumpf signs it, watchya gonna do?
I don’t have a lot of faith in the Drumpf voters figuring out they were scammed. I mean, come on – how much more obvious could he have been?
Fear not your government. MDN has labled the current administration all bumbling idiots and the new administration a real straight shooter who can be trusted to do exactly what he says (including deportation and torture). So you have nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, people are not adequately concerned about criminal nations, IP thieves, and hackers from relatively ungoverned areas.
No cloud purveyor, including Apple, is offering any guarantee or reassurance that your data is safe from non-government entities around the world. Abundant recent breaches show that clouds can’t be trusted:
http://www.techworm.net/2016/07/40-million-icloud-accounts-hacked-hackers-hold-ios-devices-ransom.html
http://www.silicon.co.uk/security/yahoo-linkedin-apple-icloud-big-data-breaches-198142
http://fortune.com/2016/07/20/apple-security-bug-password-steal-text/
Look, we all respect that Apple has for a long time provided some very good tools for users to protect their data. With OS X on personal computers, Apple led the pack. Then Apple got into music distribution and watched Google and Facebook rake money hand over fist in advertising and big data capture. Apple wanted in. So while ping and icloud bombed, Timmy just keeps pushing people to rely on iCloud, where Apple does obviously do data snooping to some extent.
Unfortunately, Apple’s push for a thin client world where software is free and everyone rents iCloud serves instead, Apple has made itself a big target. And now Apple doesn’t provide the user convenient tools for the average user to understand how to secure his data, what setting options are available, and what the status of his data is. Only a handful of data know how and when their data is encrypted. Nobody knows how it is actually saved and controlled on Apple’s rented servers.
Bottom line: don’t trust any sensitive data to anybody’s cloud. If you must, learn how to encrypt any files you do save there using your own key instead of just blindly trusting the networks and servers that connect you to the iCloud servers — which by the way Apple itself rents from Amazon and Google and Microsoft. All trustworthy companies, right?
My usual refrain:
When a government becomes totalitarian, it is an indicator that the government is a failure. It no longer serves the citizens. Instead it has acquired the bad attitude of serving itself and controlling the citizens who obviously find this bad attitude offensive and destructive.
Summary: Overthrow governments that subvert citizen’s rights and start again.
Totalitarianism is acceptable NEVER!
http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/
At least in this country, we can subvert the subversion, because the overlords neglected to take away our guns. Lunatic oversight on their part, and further evidence that no-one up there in gubmint really knows what they’re about.
The true purpose of the Second Amendment is the last resort to protect all the other rights.
I presume we’ll see some action starting Jan 21.
well, well, well….The King of the Libtards finally shows its post-election egged face.
How valiant.
We’ll see if free speech holds up. It doesn’t look good.
Zuckerman is a lunatic.
Zuckerberg, I meant.
I believe it will prevail after a challenge. This clown has not yet learned that in public office, in a democracy, the fight STARTS when he opens his mouth.
Most respectfully Derek, the same principles that apply to governments apply to computer ecosystems…
If the manufacturer wants to be the IT department, the owner of the machine should be able to override them.
“Overthrow governments that subvert citizen’s rights and start again.”
Hey Derek, that’s what we just did.
Compared to voting in Clinton, on that I’d agree. But what exactly has changed besides the guy at the top and his cabinet?
I’m a bit confused (no jokes please) regarding the trend toward corporatocracy. I could not be happier that Trump dumped the TPP ‘treaty’. It was pure corporatocracy on a worldwide level (the Pacific Rim specifically). But here’s the guy hiring Wall Street as most of his cabinet. That does not bode well. But we wait and see…